Moon Philly Delights Backers at Laurel

Moon Philly circled the Laurel Park oval this afternoon to the delight of her scores of owners at Country Life Farm. Along with the bettors who had backed her down to odds of 1-5, the Malibu Moon filly was the popular winner of the $125,000 Maryland Racing Media Handicap.

Jeremy Rose placed Moon Philly behind the pacesetter Touch the Birds at the start of the mile and an eighth test and stayed outside of that one until the far turn.  A nudge from Rose was all she needed to move into the lead and gallop home a 9-1/4 length winner in 1:54.57 over the good racing surface. Access to Charlie wore down Touch the Birds in deep stretch to take second.

“The last two races kind of came exactly the way we wanted to,” Rose said. “The last two starts, all I did was stay out of her way. She does her thing. She’s very easy to ride. As you can see she’s tactical. I wanted to stay close to the six (Touch the Birds) and I really didn’t care how slow she went just as long as we were close.”

Mike Trombetta trains Moon Philly, who had captured the Nellie Morse Stakes at Laurel in her previous start and has now won four of her last six races.

“She’s kind of hit another gear since we started running her a mile or further,” said Trombetta. “She’s been ultra consistent. For a young horse that has a lot of time in front of her, we couldn’t be any happier. Two legitimate horses (Twice the Lady and Withgreatpleasure) scratched which was a huge help.”

Trombetta indicated the 4-year-old filly would likely not run again until the Pimlico spring meet begins in early April.

Moon Philly paid $2.40 and the victory boosted her career earnings to $268,195.